Nico Rosberg triumphs in chaotic British Grand Prix

Nico Rosberg triumphs in chaotic British Grand Prix

Nico Rosberg triumphs in chaotic British Grand Prix

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Getty

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Getty

Nico Rosberg won the British Grand Prix after four cars suffered tyre explosions at Silverstone.

The Mercedes driver ended up taking the chequered flag for the second time this year, primarily as Sebastian Vettel retired on lap 41 of the 52 with what appeared to be gearbox failure to his Red Bull.

Hours after the race, the German's victory looked in some doubt after he was hauled before race stewards for failing to slow for yellow flags. However, he escaped with a reprimand and was
allowed to keep his win.

Rosberg's success followed a chaotic race in which there were four failures to the left-rear tyres of Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa, Jean-Eric Vergne and Sergio Perez.

Pirelli now faces a searching examination of its credentials to continue to supply tyres to Formula One after Silverstone was left strewn with exploded rubber throughout the race.

Mercedes brought Rosberg in for a precautionary third stop with the race neutralised, and it appeared fortunate they had done so when the team radioed their driver to tell him the set of tyres that had come off were showing signs of possible failure.

Racing resumed at the end of lap 45, with just seven to go.

Lotus had not brought Raikkonen in under the safety car, and Rosberg's fresher rubber ensured he quickly opened up an advantage of one second.

Perez, who had suffered the first Pirelli failure of the weekend, became the fourth man to lose a left-rear tyre during the race as his blew as he ran onto the Hanger Straight with Alonso in his wake.

Raikkonen was struggling to match the pace of those around him, and Webber pulled off a brave move into turn one to take second off the Finn.

Alonso was storming through the field and passed Sutil to take fourth and quickly moved past Raikkonen into third.

The Lotus was a sitting duck, and Hamilton took advantage to demote the 2007 world champion one more place.

Rosberg eventually avoided all the carnage to claim his second win of the season, and the third of his career.

Webber was second while Alonso completed the podium to move to within 21 points of Vettel's championship lead.

Hamilton collected a handy haul of points for fourth after a superb recovery, with Raikkonen, Massa, Sutil, Ricciardo, Di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg rounding out the top 10.

A delighted Rosberg dedicated his win to all of his team, who are based in nearby Brackley.

He said: "It is fantastic, it's a very special day and it is even more special because our factory is so close.

"The team have done such a fantastic job to have such momentum going this season. We are progressing all the time.

"We are really quick in qualifying and getting quicker all the time in the races."

But Rosberg admitted he had been concerned by the string of tyre failures, particularly when the tyres that came off at his final stop showed signs of delamination.

He said: "Something needs to be looked into there, there was too much of it today, I had one too but got lucky with the safety car."

Webber, meanwhile, was pleased to mark his final British Grand Prix with a podium.

He said: "There were a lot of issues with the tyres and we were lucky and it was a clean race for us.

"Nico deserved his win, he was very quick. We had some good fortune and I am happy with second on my last time here in Formula One in front of the British fans."

Alonso may have eaten into Vettel's points advantage, but he cut a downcast figure on the podium.

He said: "I have mixed feelings, the pace we saw today is not good enough.

"There have been other Sundays where we have lost points and been optimistic, today we gained points but we know there is a lot of work to do."

The Spaniard also expressed his relief after he narrowly avoided hitting Perez's McLaren when it suffered its left-rear tyre failure.

"I was so lucky, I missed contact by one centimetre, there were some risky moments."